


Start Where You Are

by hariboo



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Background Relationships, F/M, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Partnership, Team Dynamics, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-22 19:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/613404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was four years ago that the final pieces had come together; puzzle pieces that built a picture more dangerous every day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Start Where You Are

**Author's Note:**

  * For [summerstorm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerstorm/gifts).



> Advent gift fic.

  
It was four years ago that the final pieces had come together; puzzle pieces that built a picture more dangerous every day. Robin and Kaldur had realised what was happening first. Robin, the still the youngest, if you didn't count Connor's actual age (and they hardly ever did) had thought of it. The Plan, capital P, as they had come to call it. But it had been Kaldur's call.

Their leader, and in turn, their sacrifice.

Robin had found their way in with him when they saw the edges of Invasion creeping closer.

Kaldur, son of Black Manta.

Batman really needed to upgrade the Batcave's securities protocols, Robin had mumbled explaining, avoiding Kaldur's eyes.

But it had been their way in. The last piece of the puzzle.

So Kaldur had agreed, offered himself up. (Sacrifice.)

Then the plan clicked; the sound of a coffin sounding.

Artemis had been there when Tula died in Garth's arms, she had been when Connor had to pull Kaldur away from killing Ocean Master, she had been there when Robin had then told Kaldur it was time. She remembers how Robin's voice wobbled, how Kaldur's eyes dimmed, and how for once Wally stayed still.

It was time.

The Plan. (Capital P.)

 

-

 

The day Kaldur leaves, Artemis starts a countdown clock in her head.

Five months later she agrees to "leave the life" with Wally, to fill out the applications her mother leaves on the kitchen table, to give both of them what they want most: her safe. (Part of her feels it in her gut: there is no leaving the life, not for someone like her, not for any of them.)

Her mom doesn't know what's going to happen.

Wally does.

She imagines Wally starts his own countdown. They don't talk about it, not after they leave. They're not supposed to, it's all part of…

They leave the life, but that's a lie. It's a long con, to the world, to themselves.

Wally grins, says, _think of it as a long vacation in real life._ If it were only that easy. Real life to Wally is school, family, friends, and superheroes. Real life to her has been jail, lies, tears, fists, and villains. They see his family a lot, outside her mother, they rarely see hers. Sometime Jade shows up for Christmas or birthdays. Jade and Wally don't do well in the same room.

Artemis hates what she knows about real life, but maybe she can vacation in Wally's world for a bit. She'll definitely get less bruises there.

She knows the exact day that Wally starts to believe it.

They move in together and buy a dog. Artemis never wanted to be this good of a liar.

(She's not really lying, but there's a countdown in her head that tells her this life has an expiration date. She can't stop it, she can't change it, she can't hate it. She wants to be able to.)

Dick, not just Robin anymore, not just a kid anymore, not just her classmate anymore, calls them the next day just as they finish unpacking the kitchen telling them that everything is on schedule. Connor and M'gann still don't know. They can't know. That's been agreed on. (It was a huge fight between the four of them, but it's been agreed on.) M'gann has Gar too look after now, Connor is dealing with the whole No Physical Growth situation. But that's not why they can't tell them.

Artemis just hopes one day they're forgiven for what they'll have to do.

 

-

Then:

Dick calls and tell them: _I saw Kaldur today._

Wally frowns, that bubble he's built for them is cracking. She's sorry for him. For herself. For them.

Artemis sees her mental clock get closer to zero.

 

-

 

And then she dies.

The clock runs out.

A new one starts up.

(In the negatives.)

 

-

 

When she presses the button her hand shakes afterwards. She curls into her palm, nails biting. Nobody looks at her, they've learned not to.

Kaldur doesn't look at her either.

It had to be done, they both know it. This was the way it had to go. Behind them the Mountain burns like volcano, all fire and ash, the orange of the flames match that of her new outfit. Her eyes burn.

She closes them; it had to be done.

She hears Kaldur breathe out and leave the cockpit.

She does not follow. Open her eyes and takes the empty seat, orders them back to the base. They have a purpose, they have a mission. The fact that her father would be proud of her actions leaves her cold. Daddy's little girl, he called her that once, and she thinks he had been proud of her that time too. She had been lying to him at the time.

In a way not much has changed.

 

-

 

She finds him later in his room. Not many other places to go. They have run of the base and they're still in a cage. His eyes are hooded and he fingers play with an old seashell on a string. The door slides shut behind her. She swallows, remembering who gave that to him. Artemis' heart aches for all of them.

He looks up, tucking the shell back into the pockets of his outfit. “I’m sorry,” he says. Artemis’ brow furrows, unsure. There's too much to apologise for, on both their sides.

“I’m sorry you had to press that button," he clarifies, "it should have been me.”

The hand that held the remote clenches at her side. She moves across the room and sits next to him on the bed taking in his slumped shoulders and heavy brow and steps forward. She reaches out, stops, and curls her fingers back into her palm, hand at her side.

“It was the plan.”

Kaldur sighs, “Yes, the plan.” His voice as heavy as the look in his eyes. "Do you think our actions can be forgiven?"

Artemis touches the gem that hides her from the world's eyes.

"By who?" _The team, the League?_ she wants to ask, but she doesn't know how secure this room is.

"The world," Kaldur says.

There are too many answers to that.

If they succeed the world will change, _their_ world will change — actions may be excused, words will be exchanged, but there'll always be the knowledge that they knew, that they lied, that the Mountain blew up under hers and Kaldur's fingers. A Plan can only excuse so much. — and if they fail the world will be lost.

"A lot of things are probably going to change, for us. For the world."

At that she stands and touches his shoulder. Kaldur's eyes meet hers. They're hard in a way they hadn't been that first day they met and he extended his hand, welcomed her to the team, but under the hardness there's a familiarity, loyalty. He's had to give the most out of all of them, and sometimes she forgets that.

"Indeed," he nods, sighs, "Thank you… Tigress, for sticking to the Plan. You could have backed out when approached."

She shrugs, smiles, hearing the _Artemis_ under her false name — can't be too careful — but she also hears the thanks for not leaving him alone when the time came. "You're my partner, aren't you? I don't make it a habit to leave my partners behind."

Kaldur stands and straightens his shoulders, pulling himself together. It's an old habit she's seen many times, something he does just before he goes into a fight or a mission. They all had them; Dick would adjust his mask, Wally would stretch, M'gann would run a metal check on their physic link, Connor would crack his knuckles, Zatanna would mutter spells under her breath, Rocket would float and drop back to the ground to raise herself up again.

She…

Artemis would count her arrows.

Tigress does the same.

She doesn't have any on hand. (She knows how many are in her quiver three doors away.)

"I am glad, because now it truly begins," Kaldur says.

She stands, wipes her hands on her thighs, and walks to his side by the small window in his room. The glass is six inches thick and blast proof according to the schematics. Underwater everything is too blue and they're too deep to really see anything except blue and shadows of shapes.

Her bow hand clenches.

 

-

 

Black Manta brings in Simon to help fix Kaldur.

Artemis, by now, knows all to well the extent of Simon's powers and of what M'gann is capable of doing.

She knows what he'll find when he tries to repair the damage done to Kaldur.

When she offers herself up as conduit between them — "He has history with Simon, he will not trust him. He trusts me." — several eyes go wide, but Simon and Manta agree.

Stepping up to Kaldur's side she puts her hands on his temples, like Simon tells her, and tries not flinch when Simon touches her head. She feels the push into her mind, bile rises in her throat, swallows it down with her nerves.

Four years ago they started this together, they'll end it together, however this goes. She hears the door to the lab closes. To Artemis it sounds like a coffin closing.

It's all for The Plan, the world.

She hears Simon speak, tell her what she must do, and push into her mind. Taking a deep breath, she pushes into Kaldur's. The unofficial rule of the Crock family is: every girl for herself. The team taught her: you protect each other and nobody gets left behind. Artemis hopes that somehow these words of no quite wisdom will help her get out of the mess they've made.

 

-

 

When Kaldur opens his eyes again, they're bright and hard. Her lips twitch.

"It seems the Plan might need some revision."

"Well, duh."

As one they turn to Simon, who to his credit doesn't whimper as they advance on him.

 

-

 

Four years go the puzzle clicked together. Now it's time to start dismantling it.


End file.
